MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In the parking lot of Pure Passion, relatives of the man shot there over the weekend look for their belongings, which were taken by the robbers.
“They took everything. They got my ID, his ID, my phone,” said the shooting victim’s cousin.
He says his cousin was going to the car when he was robbed and shot in the parking lot.
“Nobody seen nothing? It was people outside, a parking lot full of people,” the relative told us.
In the last several months WREG has reported on crime after crime at Pure Passion.
Last November, a car was riddled with bullet holes after a drive by.
Then two men opened fire on each other in the parking lot, hitting four people.
A guard even shot a man at the club.
WREG asked District Attorney Amy Weirich about the club last year.
“We are not in the business of shutting down businesses. We want them to thrive, but when they cross that line and become a crime scene, we have to step in,” Weirich said back then.
Last year under the guidance of the district attorney’s office, the club voluntarily closed its doors for 30 days, but it reopened after adding cameras and hiring security. Before the club was allowed to reopen, it had to present its revised security plan to a judge.
In 2008, former DA Bill Gibbons closed Pure Passion as a public nuisance where illegal drugs were sold and used.
They took club owners to court. Pure Passion still came back, unlike another problem club, Crave on Beale Street. After a history of violence, Crave was finally closed for good.
The DA’s office has said it’s not easy to just board up a club.
“We’ve gotta prove a connection. We’ve gotta prove things they’re not doing that could be doing. We’ve got to prove that in some way they’re contributing to the problem,” Assistant DA Paul Hagerman told WREG last November.
So far there have not been enough problems to keep Pure Passion down.
When it comes to shutting a business down, the DA has to have proof in court.
A restraining order can be issued until problems are corrected or owners agree to a plan to correct them.
The DA’s office told WREG Monday while Pure Passion owners have taken measures to address security, the DA will continue to work with police to make sure those measures are effective.
